Sunday, July 31, 2005
7:15 PM
It is a form of training for running, where the trainees are made to run a distance of say, 400 metres within one and a half minutes, five times consecutively, but with a break of 2 minutes in between. Said to train stamina; I think it trains your hokkien vocabulary as well. For those of us who can barely clock an IPPT silver timing for the 2.4km station, this 'training' is very shiong.
Actually, I enjoy VO2 Max training. I love the sensation I get when I forcibly try to muster up strength to start a sprint when everyone's slowing down. I think it's an adrenaline rush of sorts.
Normally, when I try to do that, I manage to maintain the sprint for say a grand total of three seconds, and everyone starts to overtake me again.
Just this Friday, I had the most satisfying dose of this adrenaline rush towards the end of my 12 km run at East Coast. I started picking up speed as one of my officers came up behind me and did what all officers are obliged to do, verbally encourage me to run faster. There was a good 100-200 metres up ahead, and somehow, I just kept picking up speed and actually managed to break into a decent sprint as I reached the finish line. Not much really, but quite a big thing for me.
Of course, I do get the mandatory slight pain in the chest and the 'everywhere aches' syndrome that causes people to slow down into a walk after jogging non-stop for extended periods. With the rise in the number of people who become a statistic after collapsing during runs in the army, the line between 'pushing yourself to do your best' and 'playing with death' is becoming thinner.
Fear.
Being a Christian, this fear of freak disasters seldom has a place when I try to push myself to my limit. (To be brutally honest, I think it's actually because I seldom really try very hard until I really feel like I'm going to die, but here's the ideal answer that I want to give anyways.) This is due to my belief that He is benevolent; that He will not allow anything untoward to happen to me, or for the cynic, because my holy Sai Kang (hokkien slang, literally meaning a ground deposit for poop, refering to menial labour) on earth is not all done, so I won't be able to slack one corner in Heaven so easily yet.
With this confidence, I find that I'm able to go all out to do what is necessary, to do my best without fearing for any 'side effects'. So I can run as fast as my treshold of pain can bear without fearing that I will suddenly drop dead of heart attack.
And in a small leap of logic, I can also go all out and do my work as diligently as I should in the office, without fear of being overwhelmed with more work and responsibilities than I can bear as a result. (A meaningful quote: Help someone when he's in trouble, and he'll remember you when he's in trouble again.)
Of course, doing my best at work and training without fear is not the same as hell-riding and screwing around in Geylang protectionless without fear. Not that screwing around in Geylang WITH protection is laudable.
It's just that, I no longer have any excuse for not doing what I think is the right thing to do. And by 'right thing to do', I really mean things like helping others even when I do not feel like it, spending more time with my family, holding back my snide comments, and trying not to be self-righteous about people whom I think work less than me. Yes, and of course, that includes being an open target to arrows in the office, and willingly without a grumble too.
Nuts!
I'm just asking for it man...
Comments:
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4 comment)
"I really mean things like helping others even when I do not feel like it"... This part here scares me... a bit...
# posted by 
: 11:04 AM
: 11:04 AM
I was thinking more along the lines of situations in the office.
It's always a pleasure to help my friends.
It's always a pleasure to help my friends.
# posted by : 2:20 PM
: 2:20 PM
12km? slack man...hahaha
400m interval training? slack man...
k la jus kiddin. my OC is a commando...so over here, things are kinda crazy...haha
400m interval training? slack man...
k la jus kiddin. my OC is a commando...so over here, things are kinda crazy...haha
# posted by : 11:11 PM
: 11:11 PM
Army life? Something I don't really know anything of. Interval training is the proper term for the type of training. A lack of fear is not always a good thing. Fear is required for one to be human. Ponder upon it.
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# posted by : 2:24 PM
: 2:24 PM